Northwest Flavors (MattMatt's birthday) part III

Time to think about mains. I really like using local ingredients and ingredients that are native to Washington state. What says "Washington" more than apples, and salmon?! We have some picky eaters in my family, and only about 1/2 of them like seafood, so I made one salmon dish and one chicken dish. Don't forget bacon is still our theme. I'm embarrassed to say until this point I had NEVER made salmon before. I knew I wanted to grill it. And I knew I wanted a marinade that would be a little on the sweet side - nothing too over-the-top. (To please the picky eaters of course!) So off I went to the world wide web, to see what I could find as far as grilling salmon goes. I finally stumbled across a marinade that I thought was perfect for what I was looking for.

SWEET AND SIMPLE GRILLED SALMON

This recipe is from ALLRECIPES.COM and is called grilled salmon 1. I'll post the link here so you can see the original recipe, and below I'll show how I made it. I do like seafood on occasion, but I don't love it. I have to say this made me LOVE salmon. What a great marinade! http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Grilled-Salmon-I/Detail.aspx (real recipe!)

2 1/2 pounds salmon fillets
2/3 cup soy sauce

2/3 cup brown sugar, packed

2/3 cup water

1/2 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced

juice from 1/2 lemon

Lay fillet of salmon in a 9X13 or other dish. (You'll be marinating the salmon in this dish, so you'll need room for liquid) Sprinkle salmon with freshly ground pepper, and lightly season with salt - don't forget the soy sauce is pretty salty so go easy on the salt, or skip it all together) In a small bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients and whisk until well blended. Pour over the salmon, turning the salmon to make sure it's well coated. Allow to marinade for at least 2 hours, but it's even better if it can marinade for 4 hours. Preheat grill (all burners on high) for 10 minutes, or until hot. While grill is preheating make a foil "boat" for the salmon." When grill is preheated, turn side burners to med-high. Grill for 12-15 minutes on indirect med-high heat, checking after 10. So delicious, and goes well with side salad, and winter sangria!

BACON CHICKEN ROLL-UPS

A few months ago now, I went to trader Joe's and bought some pre-packaged apple stuffed chicken breasts. Great idea! Unfortunately, these particular chicken breasts were very bland, and had very little apple in it. So I went home a couple weeks later and started on a recipe hunt that would last a few months. I tried making pockets in the chicken breasts and filling them with apples, but I had the same problem as TJ's. Not enough apple with the chicken. I tried making chicken and just spooning apple goodness over the top and it was OK, but not great. Finally after pulling ideas from many different recipes, I finally have a recipe I love!

4 chicken breasts

8 pieces of bacon

2 apples

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Johnny's seasoning

pepper

1 cup apple juice, or chicken stock, or sherry (my favorite!) or a combination of any of them

honey

First things first as I always say. You want to put the bacon into a fry pan, and cook over medium heat for just a few minutes. You want to barely cook the bacon as it is going to cook later. Next fill up with a medium bowl with water, add some salt. Start chopping up the apples, and as you chop, pop them into the water.

Now pound the chicken breasts really thin. About 1/4 inch thick if you have the patience. Season up one side with johnny's seasoning, or any seasonings that sound good. I have a blend of spices called "basil and citrus rub" that I use a lot and that goes well with this, too. On the other side. Pile up some apples, cheese, and honey, and then dot with butter.

Now roll up the chicken breasts and wrap two pieces of bacon around each chicken bundle. Secure with a toothpick if it's rolling around too much. Place in casserole dish. Fill the dish up about halfway with liquid. (Sherry, apple juice, chicken stock, etc) Cook at 350 for 35-45 minutes or until done.

Northwest Flavors (MattMatt's Birthday) Part II

Time for appetizers! I made 3 bacon appetizers. They were all recipes I hadn't ever tried before, and the bacon bundles definitely need more tweaking, but here they are in a nut shell...




Bacon Garlic Bread sticks


I first saw Paula Deen make these on one of her shows with her sons. I thought to myself "who would ever eat these?!" But they went perfectly with my bacon theme, and I have to say, they were delightful! No one can eat just one. I didn't actually go look up her recipe online, so her recipe might have included other things...

Bacon

Freshly grated Parmesan

Garlic Bread sticks (the hard kind!)


Cut the bacon in half in long strips. Cover the bacon with Parmesan. You can't ever have too much Parmesan! Then wrap the bacon around the bread sticks. Place bacon wrapped bread sticks on a cooling rack in a cookie sheet, so the fat drips off the bread sticks. Cook in the oven around 400ish degrees for about 10 minutes. This is a very fudge-able recipe, and if you are cooking other things you can certainly adjust the temperature to accommodate the other food you're cooking. The time it takes to cook them will change depending on the temperature.




Bacon Wrapped Dates

I'm so sad that I didn't take pictures of this appetizer. They were so good, I didn't have time to take pictures before they were gone. This recipe I've always heard about, but I'm not a big fan of bacon, and I've never liked dates/figs. This past year at a Christmas party I went to, a couple brought bacon wrapped figs for an appetizer. I took one to be polite, and was amazed to find how good they were. Here's my version:

1 package pitted dates

almonds

bacon

toothpicks

Stuff one almond into each date. (It's really easy since the dates are pitted, just put the almond into the hole the pit came out of!) Wrap each date with bacon, secure with toothpicks. Place the bacon wrapped dates onto a cooling rack, and place in a baking sheet. Cook at 400 for about 10 minutes.

Bacon Bundles

This recipe I found on the Kraft website. I followed the recipe pretty much word-for-word, and didn't think it was the greatest...but I do think it has lots of potential and next time I feel like experimenting, I'll probably work on this recipe again. For now, I'll leave you with a picture.

Northwest Flavors (MattMatt's Birthday) Part I

I recently had my family over to celebrate my brother-in-law's (MattMatt) birthday. MattMatt loves bacon. He is always asking me to make him dishes that include bacon. So I thought it would be funny if I could make all my dishes with bacon. I didn't manage to get bacon into EVERY dish, but I came pretty darn close! So below are pictures and recipes from that special day. If I don't list a recipe, it's because it's not my own recipe, and I didn't change it up at all. Some of you may think this is way too unhealthy, and I would say to you, we don't eat like this every day! It was just a birthday celebration and the birthday boy happened to like bacon! Enjoy!

Winter Sangria

This recipe came from my mother-in-law. She was looking at recipes at her mother-in-law's house and made a photocopy of this and brought it home. I've made some changes to it, and I'm pretty happy with the results of it.

2 (750) bottles sparkling white wine, chilled (Don't go too cheap!)
1 1/2 cups triple sec, chiled
1 cup apple juice, chilled
3 oranges, 2 large and 1 small
2 small apples, any kind will do. I like gala the best.

Squeeze the two large oranges. You'll want about 1/2 cup of orange juice.

Slice the third smaller orange into thin, round slices. If you have a mandolin, it works so perfect for slicing the orange and apples into thinly sliced pieces of perfection! Probably if you are making this punch, you're making it for a special occasion - for friends or loved ones. And while getting the mandolin out might seem like more work, your family and friends are worth the extra five minutes, don't you think?

Next combine the orange juice, triple sec, and apple juice into bottom of punch bowl. Do this before you slice the apples, and then plop the apples right in as you're slicing them so they don't turn brown. Chill and let everything marinade for at least an hour, but if you have two or 3 hours its even more delicious!

Chicken and Sherry Noodle Soup

Chicken Noodle Soup is one of my favorite go-to weekday meals. At least in the winter months. In the Summer, I tend to do more week-night salads. But anyway. It really only takes about a half hour to make this soup and is so much better than any store-bought soup out there. It also works well for make-ahead meals. It freezes well, too. When making it ahead or freezing it, just make everything but the noodles. Don't make the noodles until the day of, otherwise the noodles sop up all the broth!


2-3 chicken breasts, depending on how meaty you like your soup
2 large carrots
2 small celery sticks
a small onion
2-3 bay leaves
6 cups chicken stock
thyme
Sherry (just one big glug)
Pasta (I like to use one package of fresh fetticine noodles from refrigerator section at grocery store, or about 2/3 thirds of a box of dried bow tie noodles)


I know a lot of people make fun of Rachael Ray, but personally I've learned some good stuff from her. If you know your recipe well, you can do make it so much faster. When going to the refrigerator, get EVERYTHING out that you'll need for your recipe. It really does save time. And when you've worked late, and you get home and everyone is starving you'll be oh so glad that you can make this quick. If you have the ingredients, why not double this recipe and freeze half of the stock for another meal later?

So, as I say so often, first things first. Get your chicken breasts into a medium sized pot (but not your soup pot!) and add 4 cups of chicken stock. (That's one cardboard container of stock at the grocery store) To your pot add a couple bay leaves, and a teaspoon or two of time. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and cook until chicken is cooked through.
Now it's time to start chopping! (My favorite part!) I always cut the carrots first, because I'm a much slower carrot-cutter than I am onion-cutter. And carrots are hard, and take a long time to cook anyway.

Once the carrots are chopped, I get my pan warming up on med-high heat. I put some olive oil in the pan, and start chopping the onions.

Once the onions are chopped, pop the carrots and onions into the pan and get them cooking. While they get started, chop the celery. After you've got everything going in the pan, season up with salt and pepper.

Once you get those delicious brown bits going on in that pan, its time to hit it up with some sherry. Allow the sherry to burn off, and then add remaining chicken stock. Let it cook for like that until the chicken is down in the other pan.

When the chicken is done, take the chicken out and add stock to soup pot. With the chicken, you'll either want to shred it or cut it into bite-sized pieces. I prefer to shred it, but this will take a bit longer. In case you've never shredded meat before, you just need to forks to get the right method. While you're shredding the chicken, bring the soup pot up to a boil and add noodles.

Once the noodles are done, add the chicken and serve up. Serve with crusty bread or a salad.

Chicken in Mushroom Sauce

Serves:4
Start to Finish: Under 60 minutes
Short cuts: I made roasted brocolli - the first thing I did when I started was preheated my roasting pan (and oven!) and got the brocolli cut up. I also served this with mashed potatoes. To save time, I went to the local grocery store and got already mashed potatoes in the refrigerator section. If it had been a weekend, I would have made my own potatoes, but not on a Wednesday!




I came up with this recipe a few weeks ago. Jina and I had talked a lot about what to make dinner that day. We finally came up with the idea of chicken in a wine sauce with mushrooms. I looked through cookbooks, but nothing stood out at me. Jina thought we should just throw chicken, wine, and salt in a casserole dish and cook it. I wasn't convinced that would work. So here's my version. I've been waiting to make it again ever since so I could blog it. It's my new favorite, and it seems a pity to call it "chicken in mushroom sauce." It seems like it deserves a more glamorous name. Oh well.

Chicken
Mushrooms
chicken broth
sherry
flour
paprika
thyme
salt
pepper
sourcream


This is one of my favorite parts! Had a bad day? BAM! Having an issue that needs to be worked out? BAM BAM!

Now it's time to season up the chicken. To be perfectly honest, normally I would use Johnny's seasoning, but we're in the process of moving and I couldn't find it. This was tasty though too and it just goes to show that you really can have a basic recipe and change it up whenever you want too. So fill a pie pan up with flour and add whatever floats your boat, johnny's or steak seasoning, or like tonight a mixture of spices. Don't forget to pat down your chicken before you dip the chicken in the flour. You want it dry as possible! I'm preheating my pan now for my chicken on med-high heat with a little bit of olive oil.

First for the spices:




Mix paprika, thyme, and salt into flour, and then coat chicken.



Into the pan they go. I'm just trying to get them golden brown on each side, not cook them through all the way.



Now, I pop the chicken out, and turn the heat down a bit. I add a little more olive oil, butter and mushrooms.

After they hang out for a little while, it's time to add some liquids. I did 3 glugs of stock, 2 of wine.




At this point, I stuck the chicken back in the sauce to finish cooking. If I had a lid for my pan, I would have put a lid on it. But I don't. So after I took the picture of it hanging out in the pan, I covered it with foil.



Once the chicken is done, I take it out one more time to thicken up the sauce. I put just a couple tablespoons of sourcream into the sauce and whisk it in.







Serve over pasta or mashed potatoes.

Stir Fry

Stir fry for 4

Vegetables such as carrot, mushrooms, brocolli
Fresh ginger, and a clove or two of garlic
Protein such as chicken, tofu, beef or pork
Rice or rice noodles or anything else that floats your boat

Sauce
3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 Tablespoons pineapple juice
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 and 1/2 Tablespoons Ketchup
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt

I love stir fry. I love how easy it is, and I love how you can do so many different combinations of veggies. This particular night I cleaned out my fridge of all the veggies I had.

Start a BIG pot of water on high heat on stove for blanching your vegetables. Start a second pot for your rice or noodles. (Follow directions on package)

While the water is coming to a boil, start prepping ingredients.

Chopping is so relaxing, don't you think?



Rainbow carrots are delicious!







Is your water boiling yet? Good!
First blanch the carrots for two minutes,
then the brocolli, and finally the mushrooms!


While the veggies are blanching, prep the chicken, and mince some ginger. Don't forget about your rice or noodles or whatever you're serving the stirfry with.

Heat a large skillet over med-high heat. Add a tablespoon or two of oil. Once the oil and pan are hot, cook the chicken. While the chicken is cooking, prepare the sauce.






Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pan. Add a little more oil to the pan and cook all the vegetables for about 2 minutes. Make a hole in the middle of the vegetables and drop in ginger and garlic. I just zest the garlic in at this point. Cook the ginger and garlic for about 30 seconds. Mix it into the veggies, add sauce and cook two more minutes or until done.




Adding the sauce








One of my favorite week-night meals!

Salad

I love salad! It's such a simple meal, but so good. I finally got a camera, and I'm so excited! My new year's resolution (well one of them anyway) is to blog more recipes on here. But you don't really need a recipe for salad, so I'll leave you for this for tonight. This was our new year's dinner.